Meghalaya Through Stories

 

I have long been fascinated with Shillong. Rather Meghalaya as a whole. Introduced to it through Janice Pariat’s books – ‘Nine Chambered Heart’, ‘Boats on Land’, and ‘Everything the Light Touches’. In her stories it seems a far-off land, deep in culture, myths and folklores, where people speak such a different tongue. The oral tradition of storytelling there has long enchanted me, of how mountains came to be, those fireside narrations and gatherings in winter nights. I long to visit the rolling hills, the forests, the sacred groves, the clean waters of Dawki river, the idyllic villages, and the numerous roadside waterfalls in the state.

Through ‘Name Place Animal Thing’ I was introduced to how the childhood and the school life of a teenage girl looks like in Shillong. The author, Daribha Lyndem, has put the tale so simplistically, like a collection of memories from days past.

And recently through numerous blogs by Cheryl Rhyn, I was again fascinated by so many local tales the place has, and its people can instantly conjure up. Her Gulmohur Quarterly post made me read several other short stories in the magazine issues.

I have started ‘Funeral Nights’ by . Just 100 pages through and numerous pages left, still I want to savor it. It is a tomb of a book, of epic scale. I want to take my time with it. Essay-like narratives in between, stories like this take time to develop, yet the knowledge you encompass as you finish the pages is huge. The author has vast experience of years spent in the land, and being a native is of course an added advantage.

In my TBR:

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2023.